Hellsreach
by FireMonkeyDragon
Summary: What if Kirito had a friend in real life that dived with him in both the official and beta of Sword Art Online? How would this effect the whole SAO cast? I suck at summaries, and a few OCs involved! Read! Review! Enjoy!
1. Beginning

**A/N: Hi everybody, welcome to my new project** _ **Hellsreach**_ **, I was thinking about while I was playing SAO Hollow Fragment and I will be using the character I created in that game. So yeah, Read! Review! Enjoy! … LIES! THIS WAS WRITTEN IN 2016 AS OF NOW I'M UPDATING THIS CHAPTER ALONG WITH THE NEXT TWO (why am I using caps?) Anyway this character is inspired a character I drew back in 2016 so the Hollow Fragment is a lie, I tried to start a small manga series with that character but somehow eventually it integrated into this. I want say too much now, bye for now.**

* * *

 _ **HELLSREACH: 1 – And so it Begins**_

 _ **(First Person POV, Itsuka Kyouhei room)**_

I stared at my Nervegear, it's been eight months since the beta test where 1000 lucky players got to try the first of many VRMMORPGs or Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, Sword Art Online created by a genius Kayaba Akihiko. I look at my computer screen beside me, a small tab popped up in the corner, _Message from Kirito,_ I move my cursor to the message and click it,

 _U diving soon?_

I decide to text back just so he knows that I'm in the real world.

 _Yea I just told my two sisters._

 _They gonna join us in SAO?_

 _No, big sis' said she's busy with university entrance exams and my little sister says she's gonna wait for next year's game if there is one._

 _K, I'll see you in game._

I close the message tab and plug in the wire and activate the battery. I look at the case of Sword Art Online on my desk then smirk as I put the Nervegear on and lay down on my bed. I look up with my eyes at the time, 12:59.

10…

9…

8…

7…

6…

5...

4…

3…

2…

1!

13:00.

I close my eyes, "Link Start!"

There was rainbow lines shooting past me until a bunch of blue circular objects appeared, touch, sight, hearing, taste, smell, they all turned green and the words were replaced with ok then vanished.

Language Japanese then the log in tab appeared, I entered my username and password, and then a new tab popped up, _Beta test data available. Would you like to use it?_ I tapped yes.

 **Welcome to Sword Art Online!**

I was sent into a vortex like place with different shades of blue flying around me before I finally re-entered the game. I opened my eyes and looked around _'Yep definitely the Town of Beginnings'_ as I looked around I saw players flooding into the town every second already interacting with other players and their surroundings. Focusing back on myself I swipe downwards using my middle and index finger, 5 small circles appear in front of me, I tap the circle with a player icon and new tabs appeared, I moved my finger to the skills tab and find that half my sword skills were gone _'Well they did reset most things from the Beta so that's not that surprising'_ , I look at my health bar top left corner of my vision: **NAME: INFERNO-LV 1**

After dismissing the menu I run towards the outskirts of the town towards the fields to get away from the crowd and to gain some exp.

* * *

 _ **FLOOR 1: TRAINING FIELDS**_

The familiar sound of exploding particles flew into my ears, a small window appeared in front of me: **Congratulations: You are now Level 2**

 **Items gained: 1x Boar meat**

I quickly dismiss my menu to move onto the next hill with grazing boars, when…

"Hey!"

I turned around to see a tall player standing at 7 feet with messy platinum blond colored hair and eyes of the same color with a Starter's Sword strapped to his belt. "Hey, what was that?" he asked.

"What do you mean? It's a sword skill," I replied waving my sword around.

"I know that much, but what sword skill is it, I haven't seen someone whack a boar into the air and killing it at the same time,"

"What? Oh that, it's called _Rage Spike_ it's more of a counter attack then a front on attack," I explained.

"Sweet, so could you teach me?" he asked.

I sweat dropped "Teach you? It's a basic skill that every sword user has and should already be in your skills bar, if you follow the instructions you can activate it."

"Ha ha! Oh yeah that's right," he laughed, "By the way, the names Shuujo,"

"Inferno," I replied, the sound of respawn filled the empty hill, and three boars appeared "So…you wanna take them?"

"Hell yeah," Shuujo replies unsheathing the sword at his waist before charging at the newly spawned monsters.

 **2 Hours Later**

After two hours of grinding exp, we finally took a break from killing boars as the virtual sun of Aincrad began to set.

"It's funny," Shuujo muttered while staring at the town of beginnings below them.

"What is?"

"Technology," he replies.

I stare at him with clueless expression of my face.

He sighs and starts to explain, "Its funny cause only six years ago, we were still using consoles and controllers and the VR headsets would make you vomit every time you turn. But now, after 6 years of testing, we're in a new stage of gaming."

"Heh, I guess you're right,"

…

….

….

 _ **DONG!**_

 _ **DONG!**_

 _ **DONG!**_

The sound of a bell echoed throughout Floor 1, I looked at Shuujo, who disappeared in a veil of light, I looked down at myself, but before I could say anything the same light engulfed my body. When the light cleared, I realized I was back in the Town of Beginnings with other players also being force teleported in the town square.

"H-Hey, what's that?" a random player cried out.

In the middle of the sky a small red hexagon with the word _warning_ the middle appeared. Followed by more hexagons but some with _system announcement_ instead. Soon the red shapes covered the entire area, forming a dome shape around the town square. Crimson liquid started to fall from the sky. _'Blood?'_ I thought, little did I know, it would be the last time I would see the red fluid for a long time. The blood started to mold into a shape, as soon as the last few drops fell, a large faceless hooded figure in a red cloak was floating in front of all the 10 000 players. I heard some of the players mutter things about _GMs_ and _Events_. The hooded figure spreads his arms apart. **"Attention Players! Welcome to** _ **my**_ **world, my name is Kayaba Akihiko, I am currently the one and only person who can control this world."**

' _Kayaba…? Akihiko…here?'_

" **I'm sure that all of you have noticed that the logout button on the main menu has been removed,"** He confirmed the fact by opening his own menu and showing all the players that haven't realized, **"However, this is by no means a mistake, I repeat, it is not a mistake, but a feature of the true Sword Art Online. You are all unable to log out of SAO, and nobody in the real world can remove the NerveGear or interrupt its operation. Should it be attempted, a powerful burst of microwave radiation emitted from a transmitter in the NerveGear will destroy your brain, thus ending your life."**

I looked over at Shuujo, like everyone else, his mouth agape and his eyes wide, trying to take in what's been said to the players.

" **Unfortunately, it's certainly possible that a player's family or friends would ignore this warning and attempt to forcibly remove the NerveGear, as proof of this, 213 players now cease to exist, in this world and the real one,"** various windows of news about the 213 dead players appeared around Kayaba, **"As you can see, news of my warning and the numerous victims are being spread worldwide. Thus, it should be safe to say that the danger of removal attempts has become minimal, I hope you will all relax and focus on completing the game. But I'd like you all to keep this in mind, from this point on, all methods of revival in the game will no longer function. If your HP hits zero, your avatar will perish for eternity, and at that moment, the NerveGear will destroy your brain."**

' _W-What no way, I'll die, for real?!'_

" **There is only one condition you must meet to be free…You must clear SAO! You are all currently on the first floor, the lowest point in Aincrad, if you conquer a floor's dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, you may continue up to the next one. Assuming you manage to defeat the final boss on the 100th floor, the game will be cleared, and all of you will be free."**

' _Clearing…Clearing a MMO, has anyone ever done that?!'_

" **And lastly, I've prepared a present for all of you in your item storages, take a look."**

Without wasting any time I quickly opened my menu and head to the item storage, "A mirror?" I muttered as the item was summoned into my hand. I looked into the small rectangular mirror, for the second time that day, I was enveloped in light again, so were the other players, soon the whole town square was covered by light. I blink twice.

"Inferno?"

' _Huh?'_

I look to my left, instead of the tall blond avatar, it was replaced by a slightly shorter body with brown hair, with green eyes instead of yellow.

"Is that you...Shuujo?" I ask.

"Yeah, it's me, like actually me," he says looking down at his hands.

I quickly look back at the mirror in my hand.

' _What?!'_

Instead of my original avatar's silver eyes and sky blue hair, they were replaced with my real body's black disheveled mushroom hair, and black eyes.

" **Right now, you're probably all wondering** _ **why?**_ **Why would I, Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear do such a thing? I have already achieved my goal. I created Sword Art Online solely for my personal entertainment. And now the preparations are complete. This concludes the tutorial for the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck!"**

With that Kayaba collapsed and was absorbed by the hexagons, and the red dome dispersed. Silence covered the town square for around 30 seconds, then someone broke, then another, then another.

"Shuujo!"

The brown haired player turned towards me.

"Do you have any friends that are also in SAO?" I ask. Shuujo nods, "Then find them, form a party or guild move to the next town after you all hit level 5…"

"What about you?" He cuts me off.

"Sorry Shuujo, I'm a Beta Tester, I think I might attract too much attention, and that will be slightly burdensome for me" I say.

"Then we'll take you with us," he argued back.

' _Sorry about this Shuujo'_ I say mentally, I force my face to make the best death glare I could do, "You think I really care about you or any other players here? If Kayaba didn't force us to this location I would've killed you and taken whatever drops you gained. I don't want or need any weaklings following me, and if I find out you have, you're dead."

"H-Hey…w-what?" he stutters, as I walk into the crowd escaping his vision. As I walk away I see a familiar mess of black hair in an alleyway talking to a red haired player, before running off. I quickly run off in the same direction but in a different alleyway hoping to cut him off. After running for around five minutes I reached the market stalls area, I do a sharp turn sliding slightly and running through a smaller side alleyway and appearing in front of the fellow beta tester surprising him.

"Kyouhei,"

"Kazuto,"

"You're off to Horunka Town aren't you?" I ask.

"Yeah, I am…lemme guess you're gonna head east instead of west?" Kazuto replied with a question.

"The first eight floors should be rather the same so let's just use the same tactics and back then, and meet me in Tolbana in 2 weeks," I say, he nodded before turning away and was just about run towards the gate.

"Wait!" I shout.

"What is it?"

"Call me Inferno from now on, until all the floors are cleared that'll be my new name," shout.

"Heh, fine, but in return you have to call me Kirito until then," he replied.

"Deal," I put my fist forward, Kirito acknowledges by bumping it with his own fist before sprinting away. I turn and run the other way towards the east gate.

After doing some light stretches, I started to head towards the Eastern gates.

' _100 Floors huh? Seriously, why couldn't it be 75?'  
_

* * *

 _ **A/N: And that's that chapter done, right, so I might update every 2-3 days, I have more free time now than I use to. I can't think of anything else to say. BYE!**_


	2. Companion

**A/N: And so I'm back with another chapter, some canon events could potentially change, but other than that there's not much to say so onwards!**

* * *

 _ **HELLSREACH: 2 – Companion**_ **  
**

 _ **Outside Tolbana Town, East of Starting City, 3rd Person POV**_

The virtual sun of the 100 floors started to set, wolves started to spawn more than boars and the spawn rate of the boars decreased due to the AI and the time change, exploding particles could be heard if everything stayed silent for at least a second. _RAGE SPIKE_ Inferno charged towards 2 wolves with his newly acquired sword from a dungeon towards the north. He managed to use the sword skill to uppercut one wolf into the air. The second wolf lunged at the black haired player but before it could hit, the first wolf fell onto the second, exploding into particles, Inferno took this chance and vertically cut the second wolf in half killing it.

 _ **Congratulations: You've reached Level 10**_ popped up in front of him. A high pitched scream tore through the air. Inferno perked up and quickly dismissed the window, he sped towards the direction of the scream. A few minutes later, he reached the top of the hill, and what he saw was to him, quite hilarious to him. It was a player in a red cloak on a tree branch flailing his or her sword around at the wolves jumping around below. The cloaked player looked up and saw Inferno staring in their direction.

"Help!" the cloaked player screamed.

' _Judging from the high pitched scream 5 minutes ago and the fear of wolves…I have a feeling'_ Inferno thought before asking, "Hey could you take your hood off so it's easier to talk to a person?"

The cloaked player slowly pulled her hood back revealing a girl with long light brown hair with eyes of the same color.

"Wow a rare specimen of a female player, so…why the do you have wolves jumping around under you?" Inferno asked. At this time he noticed that the weapon she wielded was a Starter's Rapier, a weapon designed mainly for people with high agility stats.

"Save me first!" she screamed, still flailing the rapier around at the wolves below her, one wolf managed to knock the rapier out of her hand by swiping at it, she shrieked and hugged the tree. Inferno struggled to keep a straight face, slightly inflating his cheeks to stop the laughter from forming.

"How have you survived?" Inferno asked, the girl's eyes start to form tears. The black haired player sighed, he picks up the fallen rapier beside him and tosses it directly towards her hand, hoping that she's skillful enough to catch it. But his hopes were too high, she misses it somehow and continues to hug the tree. Inferno inflates his cheeks even more. Releasing all the air by sighing he unsheathes his sword and gets into the familiar position of _SONIC LEAP_ launching forward his sword collides into one wolf causing it to hit the wolf beside smashing both into the tree, making them explode into particles. The last two wolves lunged at him, he narrowly dodged one, before counter attacking with a horizontal slash, killing it. The second one aimed for his feet, Inferno saw this coming and vertically slashed the wolf apart, exploding into particles.

"See that wasn't so hard was it? But seeing that rapier user…you should have reasonable AGL skill and be able to just run away," Inferno stated looking up at the female player above him.

"I can't get down," she muttered.

' _How has she survived?'_

"From your position to the ground is the height of two toddlers…just drop," Inferno said with a slightly harsh and annoyed tone. The female player dropped off the branch and landed on her two feet.

"Right, so you're good now," Inferno returned the female player her weapon, "Here's your rapier, closest safe zone is just beyond that hill towards your left just don't stop running…Goodbye."

"Wait!"

Inferno turned and looked at her, "What did you just do?"

"Hm?"

"Your sword glowed blue when you attack those wolves,"

' _Seriously! How has she survived?'_

Inferno sighed before giving her a lecture on sword skills, the combat system, and stats to the female player. After explaining Inferno tried to leave again, but the female player…kinda stuck with him, according to it was just for safety.

* * *

 _ **Tolbana Town 9:30pm**_

"Okay, you've been following me for hours, what do you want? Money? Items? Hair Dye?!"

Surprised by his sudden outburst the female player stuttered a bit before saying, "I-I want you to teach me, about…SAO,"

"No,"

…

"W-Why?" she stuttered, again.

"Relax, I was just kidding, I don't want to feel guilty and bad knowing the fact some player died because I refused to teach them something so simple," Inferno agreed.

"Yay!" the female player squealed, she opened up a menu and tapped some tabs, and a small window appeared in front of Inferno.

 **New Friend Request From:** _ **Asuna**_

The black haired player moved his finger over the tick, he looked up and saw Asuna's excited face, he inwardly smirked, and moved his finger over the ' _X_ ', Asuna's face went from happy to worried in an instant, he repeatedly teased her with this, just for the fun of it. Finally he got bored and pressed 'O' since Asuna was attempting to give Inferno the cute eyes treatment, which he had immunity to due to having female siblings. The two headed towards an inn located around the outskirts of town, after dinner, which was well, bread. They both rented separate rooms and went to sleep.

* * *

 _ **NEXT MORNING 5:15am**_

The sun in Aincrad had yet to rise, wolves could be heard, howling in the distance, grunts of boars, and exploding particles echoed throughout the first floor. A chestnut haired girl laid in the warmth of her bed at Howler's Inn, one of the best places to stay on the first floor. She opened one eye and looked out the window, seeing the sun was still down, she closed her eye and planned on going back to sleep. She was just about to drift off when.

…

"Wake Up!" Inferno yelled, kicking open Asuna's room door.

"W-Wha?!" Asuna yelled covering herself with her sheets.

"You requested my assistance and now you will pay that price from today we will go through until you can fend for yourself like a lone…Honey Badger!"

"How'd you get in her you freak?!" Asuna yelled, luckily they were the only two players here aside from NPCs.

"Inferno cleared his throat, "You're in my friends list, being in my friends list allows me to enter a friend's room if he or she is staying at an inn. If it's a house then it's a different situation, probably."

Asuna was left speechless.

"Right! Get dressed at meet me outside this inn in 5 minutes!" Inferno ordered.

"Who are you giving me orders?!" Asuna retaliated.

"Your Senpai!"

"You look 13!"

"I'm 14!"

"I'm 15!"

…

"I currently have control over your fate so show me at least some respect. Other players would've just left you to die!"

"Did your parents not tell you that you should _respect_ your elders first?!" Asuna in a fit of morning rage unknowingly let go of the covers she was holding.

Inferno felt his face heat, he coughed slightly and inflated his cheeks in an attempt to disperse the heat due to the _'view'_.

"I-I'll…just see you in a b-bit," he stuttered before swiftly scurrying out the door.

Asuna blinked confused from her companion's sudden change of attitude, it was then she looked down, she let out a small squeal as she blushed heavily, she pulled the sheets over her face due to embarrassment.

* * *

 _ **Tolbana Outskirts 5:25am**_

"Let's start over," Inferno said completely recovered from the earlier 'event' however his companion still had a small blush on her cheeks, Asuna nods but wasn't prepared for what was going to come next,

"Starting from today I will teach you all you need to know to survive in this world! And from now on you will address me as Inferno-sama," Inferno stated.

…

"Okay never mind, forget what I just said, calling me Inferno is good enough, Inferno-sama, sounds weird," he said, the chestnut haired girl nodded.

"So what are we doing today?" she asked excitedly.

But the excitement left her and was replaced with fear when she saw the evil smirk on appearing on his face.

"You're a rapier user, so that only means one thing, I'm going to train you until your speed stats are higher than mine," he informed, "beyond that valley lies Horunka Woods, a small dungeon like area with many monsters that require a decent amount of speed to avoid their attacks,"

"And we just take them out?" Asuna asked with a slight tinge of excitement in her voice.

"No," Inferno replied, "You're just going to keep avoiding their attacks, and I'll just sit and watch unless you're in real danger,"

"W-What?! How would you know if I'm in-," Asuna starts but is interrupted when a small message appeared in front of her. **Inferno invites you to join his party**.

She accepts his offer and opens her mouth to continue but Inferno stops her, "Let's just head over for now, I'll tell you about the party system on the way."

Asuna simply just nods, and the two head out towards the Woods, with Asuna receiving another lecture like the day before from Inferno. 

* * *

**A/N: Kirito x Asuna fans don't worry, that's still gonna happen, I have no plans on messing up the canon too much, just a few tweaks here and there. That's all for now, BYE!**


	3. Promise

**A/N: For all you people who are wondering if it it's going to be OC x Asuna…I have no idea if it's actually going it's a unique pairing you don't see that often, I'm still thinking about it, but the relationship between Inferno and Asuna is like a brother sister relation, not the lovers one since I'm still thinking of pairings, also in the last Author's Note I did mention that KiriAsu is still gonna happen 85% sure of that, viewers don't expect romance too soon, but as of now it can probably go either way.**

* * *

 _ **HELLSREACH: 3 – Promise**_

Three weeks have passed ever since Inferno decided to 'train' Asuna, well it was more like torture to her and personal entertainment to Inferno. But nevertheless, the two players journeyed west towards Horunka Village.

"So, what are we doing today?" Asuna asks as they arrive in Horunka.

…

"Hello? Earth to Inferno?" Asuna waves her hand around the black haired players face, but got no response, she then tried snapping her fingers next to his ears, still no response. _'What the hell?'_ she thought. But there was something else in Inferno's mind as he slightly bit his bottom lip.

' _Where was the boss room again? Wasn't it somewhere near Tolbana, or was it in the center of the world, or maybe its somewhere completely different since they probably changed stuff after the Closed Beta. Wait! I got…"_

Something hit Inferno's head, hard. Sending him flying far and slamming into the side of a building, a purple window appeared on the building _Immortal Object_.

"Oww," Inferno rubbed his head, lucky that he entered a safe zone before he got hit, "What the hell Asuna! Why'd you hit me…?" Inferno's eyes followed Asuna's arm down to her hand. She was spinning a frying pan around using her left hand.

' _Where'd she get that? Is she planning to raise her cooking skill or something?'_

"You weren't responding to anything!" she retaliated, "I tried calling your name, blowing in your ear, bouncing my hand on your hair!"

' _She was blowing my ear?!'_

"Umm, Asuna?" Inferno looked around behind her, but the chestnut haired girl continued her rant,

"Asuna," Inferno stood up. However the female player didn't notice and continued ranting.

"Asuna!"

"What!?"

"You're creating a scene," Inferno stated gesturing the NPCs and players around her, staring. She blushed in embarrassment and dragged Inferno away, with her hitting object still in hand.

Once the two of them were in the middle of the village where they could blend in with the crowd to escape the random bystanders that followed them.

"So what are we doing today?" Asuna asked in her usual tone.

"Well, I'm planning to restock some items," Inferno said _'Especially health potions, now that chestnut has a dangerous weapon'_.

"Restock? You mean shopping?!" Asuna cried out excitedly clasping her hands together, with stars in her eyes.

Inferno sighed, "I guess you can put it that way, but today is personal training day, I think it's time for you to make some upgrades to your rapier and buy stronger armor,"

Asuna nodded and ran off, _'She's not gonna do nothing I just said is she?'_ stretching his arms, he walked off towards the closest merchant stall. Which had a decent sized line.

Inferno _'Great more waiting'_ , he walked forward and joined the line. After a few minutes of waiting, the person in front of him yawned and stretched his arms upwards, dropping his arms he let them swing behind one arm almost hit Inferno in the face if he didn't block it.

"Excuse me is it possible for you to control your arm strength better?" Inferno asked rather annoyed.

The player in front of him turned, they stared at each other with an annoyed face, but thought the same thing, _'I've seen him somewhere before, but where?'_

"Yo Klein! Dynamm just got all our supplies from another store," a fat player called from outside.

"I'll be right there," the player known as Klein called out.

' _Klein? Definitely heard that name somewhere'_

"Sorry about the arm flinging kid, but it's your turn now," Klein told the black haired player gesturing towards the counter before running after his teammate. _'Oh wait that's right, he's the guy that was with Kirito after Kayaba showed up, now I remember'_.

* * *

 _ **Horunka Town, 3 Hours Later**_

Inferno yawned as he swiped through his quest list in his menu. All there was were delivery quests and the repetitive kill 24 boars quest. "Hey Kirito, did you find the boss room yet?"

"No,"

"Really?" Inferno says with a surprised face, "Don't you have a lot of time on your hands?"

"Yeah, but still it's annoying walking around all day just to find one thing," Kirito stated, "…Say, Inferno, you think the seven floors are still the same?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Inferno replied, "but I've noticed some changes to this floor,"

Kirito nods in agreement.

…

After a moment of silence, with both beta testers trying to remember where the boss room was, Kirito decided to change the subject, "So how's traveling with a girl going for you?" he asked.

"Terrible,"

"Well that's a straight forward answer," Kirito responded with a slight tinge of sarcasm.

"Well it is," Inferno admits, "She has a fear of wolves, doesn't shut up about her life in the real world, complains about not having a shower for a week, and has weapon that can kill you in a safe zone,"

After hearing the last bit Kirito perks up with a shocked expression, "Wait what?"

"Yeah, it's a circular metal object that creates things but also destroys things," Inferno hinted, hoping that Kirito would know what he meant.

"What does a frying pan have to do with safe zone kills?" he asks.

"Well let's see, I presume that you get from starting the cooking skill but didn't know it can be used!"

"You know come to think of it, I did see someone sword skilling a spoon once."

Inferno sighs and dismisses his menu before jumping down from the tree he was sitting on.

"Oh by the way, did you hear?" Kirito says also jumping off the tree.

"Hm?"

"About the Daily Event, it's the same one from the Beta," Kirito says, Inferno tilts his head confused, "The one that got us up to level 13,"

Inferno perked up suddenly remembering what his friend meant, "Oh you mean…"

"The Gold…"

"The Six Tusked Boar?"

Kirito fell over anime style _'Oh yeah, now I remember, he hit level 13 on floor 2 not floor 1'_. "What I was going to say is the Golden Slime,"

"That weak thing?"

"How would you know? You never fought it,"

"But it's a slime, they're weaker than boars, and you were killed by a boar," Inferno reminded.

Kirito shivered remembering that incident a back in the beta testing and put his hands behind his head, "Don't remind me, but fine do what you want, just be on guard if you decide to take it on, it has a nasty ability," with that he waved his hand and walked off.

' _Nasty ability huh?'_ Inferno looked down towards the bottom left of his visual to check the time, 11:30am _'Well I have to do something to kill time'_ he stretched his arms slightly and walked off in the direction of the fields.

As he reached the gate, he saw many players forming parties of six or more, _'They must've heard about the event too'_ Kirito's warning rung in his head, _'Well maybe I should party up, just this once'_ He looked around searching for a free party to join, but most of them were already full and everyone seemed to already know each other

"Well, I'm a solo player for a reason, hopefully my skills didn't get too rusty," he mutters before following the multiple parties.

* * *

 _ **Horunka Town, 7:00pm, Inn**_

After a day of running away from mob swarms, Inferno met up with Asuna at an affordable inn near the edge of town. The beta tester yawned and took a sip of coffee while staring at the female player sitting opposite to him acting unnaturally cheerful.

"Sooo, what did you today?" Asuna asked smiling leaning in closer.

' _Why is she acting like this? This is creepy'_

"You first," he replied eyeing her suspiciously while taking another sip of coffee.

Asuna opened her menu and swiped down, tapping some of icons, she swiped the menu towards her left sending the menu in front of Inferno. He opened one eye to see what was so important that she had to show him.

"I raised my rapier skill to 7," Asuna said nonchalantly, "But I wasn't able to find good equipment,"

Inferno's eyes widened, and choked on his drink, he started hitting his chest trying to swallow but that only caused him to lose balance and almost fell of seat, using his legs like chopsticks he managed to grab onto the table. But in the end, he still fell off of his seat. Asuna leaned over to look at her friend with a worried expression.

"Are you okay?" she asks.

Inferno just coughs, "You…actually…listened," he says between coughs, "Humanity, hasn't…failed after…all,"

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean," Asuna retaliates rather annoyed.

"Since when did you start listening to me?" Inferno asks while getting up from the floor back to his seat.

"Well, since last night?" Asuna says twiddling her thumbs.

"What happened last night?"

"Remember the promise,"

"…Promise?" Inferno scratched the back of his head trying to remember what happened, "What promise?"

He looked up at Asuna, but he wasn't expecting her to look gloomy, the next thing he knew, the chestnut haired girl got up and walked off. He sat there in silence for a while. _'What did I say that was so important?'_ he pondered, deciding to drop the subject he got up and walked out the door.

* * *

 _ **Previous day, 9:30pm**_

"Asuna! Concentrate!" the black haired player yelled while shielding himself from a Little Nepent. He looked over at his companion who was looking over a Little Nepent whose health was already in the red.

"Don't hesitate Asuna! This is the only way to go back!" Inferno yelled as he broke the Nepent's defenses and slashed it apart.

She looked over at Inferno and looked back down at the plant creature seeing its injured state she couldn't bring herself to finish the job, slowly crawling away, and also slowly regenerating health. But before it could get anywhere far and before it could regenerate enough health. A foot came crashing down on its head followed by a blade through its core.

"If you keep fighting like that you'll die and all my lessons will be wasted, rule one of surviving this game, don't be reckless and overconfident. And rule two don't hesitate to kill," Inferno explained to the female player, she slowly nodded, a sorrowful expression forming on her face.

Inferno sighed, "Just head back to the safe zone and wait for me there," once again Asuna slowly nodded.

 _ **Sometime Later**_

"Your back…" Asuna muttered, she was still in the safe zone Inferno advised her to meet him in.

"Let's head back to town," Inferno decides and started to walk off.

"Wait!"

Inferno turns around.

"I have to become stronger don't I?" she asks, "I want to, no, have to be as strong as you!"

"No!"

"W-What? Why can't I…?" Asuna began.

Inferno walked up to her and pulled up his menu, and scrolled down to the item storage. He pressed one item it materialized in his hands. A rapier with light green, almost teal colored guard, just by looking at it, anyone could tell that it was either dropped or crafted. Inferno handed the rapier to his chestnut haired companion.

"Surpass me,"

"W-What?" Asuna says shocked at what the black haired player just said.

"You heard me, surpass me, don't limit yourself to my level of skill, go beyond that,"

Asuna's shocked expression stays on her face.

"But that doesn't mean that I'm just gonna sit back and let you beat me you know, you're gonna have to train harder, okay?" Inferno says patting Asuna's head.

"Y-Yes I will," she says, tears of joy started to form in her eyes. The beta tester smiles as Asuna examines her new rapier.

' _I'm not as strong as you think Asuna, if only you had the right mindset then you'd already be better than me'_

"Then I'm gonna promise you something," he says, "I'll get you out, along with everyone else, no matter what it takes."

' _Even if I die'_

"Then you'll need someone to support, you can't do it alone you know," she replied.

Inferno nods and the two started their walk back to the inn.

* * *

 _ **Present Time, Next Morning**_

Asuna sat on her bed staring at the door for some kinda of crazy entrance made by her black haired companion, in truth she had been waiting for some time for the door to burst open, but no one showed up.

"That's strange, he usually doesn't sleep in," she mutters, as she equips her daily outfit consisting of a dark red leather tunic with a lightweight breastplate and leather pants with boots up to her knees and her red cloak. Opening her menu, she checked her friends list to see if Inferno was still there, and sure enough he was.

Once Asuna was downstairs she started asking other players if they have seen the beta tester, surprisingly they all had no idea who he was.

 _ **5 hours later**_

Asuna returned to Horunka Village after some time of rapier training, a small white rectangle appeared in the top right corner of her vision, under her health bar, swiping her index and middle finger downwards her menu activated and went straight to mail.

 _Asuna go straight to Tolbana right now, I'll meet you there next to the fountain tomorrow at 7am, which should be enough time, and explanations will be given once you arrive._

 _Inferno_

The chestnut haired player sighs, "Seriously that kid makes me run everywhere," she groans as she heads away from the safe zone once again.

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile, Quest Plains**_

Kirito and Inferno, after a night of Labyrinth clearing decided and head to Tolbana together.

"Inferno I wanna ask you something,"

Inferno looks towards his friend.

"Why did you decide to help her?" Kirito asked.

Inferno simply looks up at the clouds in the sky before replying, "When I first met her, I noticed that she's a rapier user, but she didn't even know how the combat system works, but she still tried to fight, in these three weeks I've seen what she can do if she puts her mind to it…however that's her only problem right now, not having the right mindset to fight in this world, if I can help her get over that I'm sure that she'll become one of the strongest players in this game,"

Kirito had a small look of surprise expression on his face, not knowing that his longtime friend thinking has changed after entering Aincrad, but then again his own thinking had too. He also noticed that Inferno started to slightly bite his lip, due to being his longtime friend Kirito knew that this usually meant that Inferno was thinking about something.

"That's not the only reason is it?" Kirito asked.

"She reminds me of Yuri,"

"Your older sister?"

Inferno nods, deciding not to speak anymore, quickens his pace with Kirito following him. 

* * *

**A/N: And that's that, right…there's not much to announce so I'm just going to keep this short and say…thank you for reading up until now! BYE!**


	4. Illfang

**A/N: I'm back, with another chapter, if you bothered to read the author's note at the end of the previous chapter you should know what's gonna happen in this chapter, yeah Illfang, its gonna be a pain to write, but now it's finished yay, so read, review, and you know rest –** _ **Sometime in 2017**_ **. Yes I'm back my (currently) 16 followers and other people who stumbled upon this –** _ **Sometime in 2018**_ **.**

* * *

 _ **Tolbana, First Person POV**_

A month has passed since the Death Game begun, 2000 lives were lost within that time, either out of sheer stupidity or bravery. But before everyone's sanity was lost, the boss room for the first floor was recently discovered by a small party of five, and today, the stronger players of SAO gathered in Tolbana for a meeting to defeat the boss.

"Listen up! I'll be starting the conference now! Thank you everyone, for responding to my invitation. My name's Diabel, and my class is informally, Knight!" a blue haired player announced, the crowd immediately burst into laughter after he said the last bit.

"There's no class system you know,"

"Knight he says,"

"Is this meeting a joke too?"

Even when the crowd insulted Diabel he still kept a straight face with somewhat of a smile, while gesturing them to quiet down, as soon as they did, a serious expression immediately appeared on his face.

"Today, on the highest level of this floor, my party discovered the boss room!" he informed, "By defeating the floor boss and reaching the 2nd floor we'll be able to show everyone in the Town of Beginnings that this death game _can_ be cleared! It's our responsibility to do so! Don't you agree, everyone?"

Several nods and murmurs of agreement floated around the crowd before they started clapping in agreement.

"Okay," Diabel continued, "Now I'd like to begin discussing our battle strategy, for starters we're going to split up into parties of five or six,"

I look over to my right and see Kirito shuffle towards me and Asuna, I quickly send him a party invite which he gladly accepts.

"Looks like we're the leftovers again, huh?" Kirito says.

"Heh, yeah," I nod my head before turning back towards Diabel.

"All right! Are you guys done partying? Now-" he begins before another voice cuts him off.

"HOLD IT!"

I look back and see a spiky orange haired player at the top of the stairs, he leaps down and lands in front of Diabel.

"The name's Kibaou, there's something that I need to get off my chest," he turns towards the crowd, "I'm positive that there are some amongst you that should be apologizing to those who've died so far,"

"Kibaou-san, the people that you're referring to are the beta testers, correct?" Diabel asks.

"OF COURSE I AM! On the day that this crappy game started, the beta testers disappeared, abandoning all us beginners, they monopolized the good hunting grounds and profitable quests, prioritizing themselves over others, and afterwards they feigned ignorance for doing so," Kibaou turns towards the crowd again, "SOME OF YOU ARE SURE TO BE BETA TESTERS! WE SHOULD HAVE THEM KNEEL IN APOLOGY AND HAND OVER THE MONEY AND ITEMS THEY'VE BEEN HOARDING! I CANNOT AND _WILL_ NOT ENTRUST MY LIFE TO SUCH PEOPLE!"

I look at my fellow beta tester sitting one seat below me, from the looks of his body language I can tell that he's obviously thinking of a way to get out of this situation one way or another.

"Mind if I speak?" a new voice appears, this time it was deeper than the two people on 'stage'. Just by looking at him, anyone could tell that we wasn't Japanese, but I have to admit, his Japanese is pretty good. He gets up from his seat and walks over to Kibaou, and towers over him.

"My name is Agil, Kibaou-san, basically you're saying that the beta testers should take responsibility for the many deaths by apologizing and offering reparations because they didn't look after us new players, right?"

"Y-Yeah," Kibaou stutters intimidated by the tall player in front of him.

Agil reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a small brown book, "This is the guidebook, I believe you have one too, after all it's up for free at the item shop, after all,"

"I do, what about it"? Kibaou asks, still slightly intimidated.

"The people who distributed these, were former beta testers," Agil turns around and faces the crowd and announces, "Listen, this information was available, yet many players died. What I thought we'd be doing here was planning how to fight the boss using what we learned from these deaths,"

Being utterly destroyed in the argument Kibaou stormed back to his seat and sat down with his arms crossed, and soon followed up by Agil.

"Okay, May I continue?" Diabel began, "The truth is, the guidebook that was just mentioned had information about it in its latest version. According to this, the boss is called _Illfang the Kobold Lord_ , also, he has mobs called the _Ruin Kobold Sentinels_ guarding him. His arms consist of an axe and a buckler, when the last of his four health bars becomes red, he switches to a curved sword called a _Talwar_ , his attack pattern also change," the blue haired player closes the book, "That concludes the conference. Lastly, concerning loot distribution, the money is automatically distributed, EXP distributed to the party that does the last hit, and items belong to whoever gets them. Any objections?"

Murmurs of agreement float around the crowd.

"Okay, we'll leave at 10 in the morning tomorrow. You're all dismissed!" Diabel concludes. Some of the players in the crowd started to stand and leave, while others discuss about what their party should do in the upcoming boss raid.

* * *

 _ **1st Floor Boss Room, Mid Battle, 3rd Person POV**_

Sounds of steel clashing, battle crying, and the roar of Illfang echoed throughout the Boss Room, Illfang's health was already in the third bar due to Diabel's leadership of the assault team, with smaller squads keeping control of the Kobold Sentinels the battle was going better than expected. With Kirito's small party of three finishing off what looked to be the last of the Sentinels a loud roar signaled the nearing climax of the battle. Illfang threw back his current weapons away and pulled out a large blade from behind. With no more Sentinels spawning the three turned their attention to the main target.

"Stay back! I've got this!" Diabel called getting into a stance, his sword glowing yellow.

' _That's not the plan? What is he…?'_

"Wait Stop!" Kirito shouted next to him. Inferno looked at his friend slightly confused then looked back at the blade the boss wielded.

' _Something's off.'_ The blade resembled something of an East Asian weapon like a giant katana, _'Is that the same weapon as before?'_

Next to him Kirito rushed forward, "Diabel! That's not a Talwar!"

"I thought I told you to stay back!" shouted Diabel as he tried to follow the Kobold Lord now bouncing around on the pillars. Inferno rushed forward to stand next to Kirito with Asuna following behind.

The Kobold Lord then landed directly behind Diabel. In a split second Diabel was sent flying to the side. The assault team watched in horror as their leader was being dragged around the room like a ragdoll by the boss. Diabel's health plummeting fast stood his ground preparing a sword skill for a last stand attack. Illfang did a spin and sliced in his direction. For a moment nothing moved, Diabel slowly walked towards Kirito opening his mouth put no sound came out, but mouthed _Defeat…for everyone…here_. A red horizontal line suddenly appeared on Diabel's head between the lip and nose. The top half of his head exploded into polygons his body dropping to his knees but never made it as it also exploded right after. Everyone, especially Inferno, Kirito, and Asuna looked terrified and slightly disgusted at the slaughter of the assault team's leader. Players started to panic like ants when you kill their queen and back away before breaking into a run towards the exit. However the boss had other plans ass it leaped over most players and landed in front of them roaring and started to attack.

Kirito gripped his sword tightly, and turned around to look at Illfang terrorizing the assault team.

"We have to end this quickly," he stated, Inferno and Asuna both nodded.

"We do this like the minions," Inferno said, as Illfang came charging towards them, the three dodging at the last second as the boss thrusted his No-dachi forward, however it caught itself onto Asuna's cloak destroying the item revealing her chestnut hair in all its glory. A slash wound appeared on Illfang's flank, Asuna had managed to strike him as she dodged.

' _She's improving fast'_

"It's coming back" Kirito informed, parrying against its attacks with Inferno and Asuna striking the main body. Kirito saw his chance and charged forward, however Illfang was ready and using the momentum of a spin slammed the No-dachi against Kirito forcing him to block, the force of the attack sent him flying back with Asuna attempting to catch him but instead sent them both flying back.

Beside them Inferno stood in a stance preparing a sword skill, Illfang charged, Inferno rushed forward to collide with it. The next second Inferno couldn't feel his right arm anymore as he saw his severed arm flying in front of him, the sword in that hand started to lose the sword skill glow and landed on the ground as the arm busted into polygons, Illfang managed to thrust the blade forward and sliced off his arm. He then immediately felt something slam into him, Illfang smashed his tail against him sending him high into a pillar.

"Kyouhei!" he heard Kirito scream, but instead of his in-game name he heard his real name being called. Inferno's body fell to the ground hard, his HP already in the red and still depleting.

' _This is it? How boring'_ Inferno blacked out and the sound of battle slowly faded.

* * *

 _ **?**_

Inferno opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the ground of an empty area, he stood up and looked down, still in his battle gear and his arm returned. Every step he took echoed in the void. The sky above him turned to red color however the ground remained black. In front of him appeared five rows of obsidian braziers in a circled formation each row higher than the one before it. It seems that the braziers surrounded some sort of hill.

Inferno took a step forward and the first row of braziers lit up revealing ice blue flames along with a white quartz colored staircase going up, Inferno started heading up, the second row of braziers being a darker blue fire, the third row had orange, and the fourth had blood red. Then the final row, as Inferno took the final step the last row of braziers ignited black flames. A large cage appeared in front of him, from the lighting he was able to make out a figure standing in the center. The figure walked forward, however Inferno stumbled back, the figure looking at him was himself wearing a black long sleeve shirt and black track pants.

"Who…are you?" Inferno stuttered.

"Does my appearance not answer you?" the replica asked.

"So does everyone who dies in this game meet their clone?"

"Oh? Course not,"

"Then what are…?"

"I'm the part of you that you don't want to remember anymore, the truth that you don't want to know, that you think you don't know, but you know fully well."

' _This is some Tokyo Ghoul level sh…'_

"You're thinking that this is some Tokyo Ghoul level shit right?"

Inferno's eyes widened in shock and slowly nodded.

"H-How…?"

"I thought I already gave you that answer, whatever you think, I think, we are the same person but with a different past, mine being real and yours fake." The doppelganger reached his hand out of the cage and tapped Inferno's temple with his finger. "In here you have purposely forgotten, but here," he clenched his fist and put it on the center of Inferno's chest, "is wear I reside, the only reason I exist is because you heart and soul disagree with your mind."

"Enough with this shit! You're probably just a figment of my imagination just wasting my time while I'm unconscious!"

"Technically, you are correct," the clone walked to the back of the cage and sat down leaning against the metal bars. Inferno turned and started to walk down the stair but then stopped.

"You're afraid aren't you? Not facing Illfang, but you're more afraid of what Kazuto and Asuna will think."

Inferno turned back to the cage, his clone now sitting in the center with his elbow on his leg, cheek resting on his fist.

"You think that the attack you launched was to save Kazuto and Asuna, but for that moment they both didn't matter to you did they? If they were you would've parried the next attack, or help them get back, because from what I saw, that player Agil was preparing to support you guys. The only thing on your mind at that moment is one of your best instincts. The only thing on your mind…was to _kill_."

* * *

 _ **1st Floor Boss Room, 3rd Person POV**_

"You're wrong," Inferno muttered, his eyes flashed open, his encounter with his…soul? Was able to able to motivate him to keep fighting in the real world. To prove himself wrong. He didn't believe that he had a mindset of a killer or someone that leaves his friends for ambition. Using the pillar to support himself, he opened the menu and consuming a large number of potions regaining his missing arm and healing him back to full health, from what he saw the assault team had regained their morality and started to chip off Illfang's health.

Illfang spun around using his tail as a whip, and clearing players close to him, sending them flying off the same manner he sent Inferno earlier. He saw Kirito say something to Asuna before both of them charge forward, seeing this he also rushed forward eyeing his sword on the ground snatching it up, Asuna managed to knock Illfang off balance, seeing his opening he picked up speed, activating a sword skill.

 **Fire Slant**

The blade ignited flames and he slashed straight through Illfang's side, Kirito finished the battle with his own sword skill creating a _V_ shape on the Kobold Lord's body, the boss's torso cut into three pieces marked the end of the battle, Illfang let out a final roar before exploding into a bright light followed by thousands of polygons.

CONGRATULATIONS

For a minute nobody said anything until someone chuckled followed by someone's laughter, soon the whole boss room exploded into cheers, some people seeing what their drops were, some fist bumping others, some doing small victory dances.

"You're alive," Inferno heard Kirito's voice behind him. He looked down at his friend who was currently crouched down from exhaustion.

"My menu opening arm was cut off, so I had to wait a bit," Inferno lied, Kirito accepted the lie, he never properly took note of which arm was severed.

Agil walked up to them with Asuna beside him, "That was some fine swordsmanship. Congratulations, today's victory is all thanks to you."

Kirito looked hesitant to accept the compliment, he was about to respond when a shout overpowered the cheers.

"Stop cheering!" Everyone in the room turned to see Kibaou sitting there, "Why'd you do it, huh? Why'd you let Diabel die?!"

This sent the room into full silence again. "Let him die?" Kirito muttered.

"That's what I said. Admit it! You knew the technique the boss was gonna use. You could've told us! Then Diabel would've stood a chance...He wouldn't have to die!"

The player next to Kibaou suddenly shouted, "I know why he knew! He used to be a beta-tester!  
Think about it! He knew the boss's attack patterns! He knew, but he kept it from us! And I bet he's not the only beta-tester here! Come on, show yourselves!"

The players started to look around accusing others and shouting insults at Kirito.

"Hey! Calm down," Agil tried to talk to sense into the panicking players. Inferno was about to join when he heard a maniacal laugh from his friend crouched beside him stood up.

"So, you guys think I used to be a beta-tester. It's not cool to put me in the same class with those noobs." He said in a cold voice surprising everyone including Inferno.

"W-What did you say?" Kibaou stuttered.

"You heard me. Most of the thousand people who scored a slot in SAO's beta were rookies. They were so green, they didn't even know how to level up. Hell, even you guys are better than they were. But me, I'm nothing like those guys, man. During the beta, I made it to floors that were higher than any of the other testers. That's a fact. I knew about the boss, 'cause I fought tons of monsters with way more sword skills on higher floors! I know a bunch of other things, too. More than you can imagine. More than any info broker." Kirito announced maintaining the cold voice from before. His face also looked slightly twisted like he just turned into some sort of psychopath.

"W-What the hell? If that's true, then you're worse than a beta-tester! You're a goddamn cheater, that's what you are!" Kibaou shouted.

"He's a beta-tester and a cheater! He's a Beater!" One player shouted.

' _Really? They just had to give him a cool codename'_

"A beater... Yeah, that's good. I like it." Kirito opened his menu and equipped his recent bonus drop, "Okay, you can call me a beater. Just make sure you don't confuse me with those beta-testers anymore." A midnight black coat formed over Kirito's body, nobody said anything as he turned and walked towards the door that led to the teleportation gate to the next floor. Inferno saw that as he reached the stairs Asuna ran up to him and exchanged a few words before Kirito opened his menu again but this time left the party, he looked up at Inferno and nodded slightly before disappearing through the doors.

' _Scapegoating himself for the other testers, never thought that he would do something like that, maybe Diavel's death had an impact on him…'_

The rest of the assault team slowly calmed down and dispersed, some heading back to the First Floor, others heading to the Second. Inferno and Asuna were among the latter. 

* * *

_**A/N: OKAY! WE ARE DONE! Right, basically ignore the whole of the author's note at the very beginning, since that was written awhile back. Things have changed it's basically been, a year or two since the first draft of this chapter was created but never actually released. So within these two years of doing other things I have finally decided to continue this story. Ideas have changed so basically the chapter names in last chapter's a/n…Ignore them. Two things you may have noticed in this chapter…maybe three. 1: Illfang's battle has slightly changed and so has Diabel's death/2: The inner Inferno thing is based off both Inner Kaneki (Tokyo Ghoul) and Kurama (Naruto) but it was in the original draft so I kept it there, I'll get more into it in future chapters/3: This story will be dark, well I'll try to make it dark but I can't guarantee how much. And if you're still reading this I will now announce that this story will now go under a name change. 3 Percent Luck 97 Percent Skill (2016-2017) - Hellsreach (2018). Anyway now I'll see you in the next chapter. BYE!**_


End file.
